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Cream Puffs

Cream puffs made from choux dough filled with custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cream Puffs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the choux dough

  1. Combine butter and boiling water in a saucepan. Stir over heat until melted.

  2. Add flour and baking powder, stirring until the mixture pulls away from the pan.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool. Once cool, beat in eggs one at a time.

Bake the puffs

  1. Drop spoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered baking sheets, dipping the spoon in cold water each time.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 45 minutes.

Make the custard and fill

  1. Combine milk, egg yolks, sugar, and flour or cornstarch in a saucepan.

  2. Add vanilla and cook over medium heat until thickened into a custard.

  3. Once the puffs are cool, fill them with the custard.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter
Melts into the water to add richness and tenderness to the dough.
All-purpose flour
Starch and gluten give the dough structure to hold its shape around the steam.
Eggs
Bind the dough and set during baking, giving the puffs their structure and rise.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding creaminess and body.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set and add richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the flavor.

The step that matters

Baking the puffs until they are fully set. The steam from the wet dough inflates the puffs, and the starch and egg proteins must set before they collapse. Underbaked puffs can deflate as they cool.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, egg, milk, sugar):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, milk, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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